CLIMATOLOGY OF NEBRASKA. 



35 



good crops where the majority were failures. The successful fields 

 were the ones that were well and deeply cultivated. After the wet 

 season of June, which sometimes extends into July, is over, there 

 are rains and showers at longer intervals until and during autumn. 

 During winter it rarely rains. Snow falls in winter, but seldom to 

 a great depth. The snows generally range in depth from one to 

 ten inches and in a few extreme cases to fifteen inches. During 

 the majority of winters, as can be seen from Dr. Childs' table A, 

 no snows fall over eight inches in depth. 



West of the looth meridian the amount of rainfall gradually 

 decreases from the yearly average of thirty inches, at or near 

 Kearney Junction to twenty inches at North Platte. If the last 

 two years only were taken into the account, even there and almost 

 to the west line of the State the rainfall would be estimated at 

 thirty inches. It will hardly as yet average that much for ten 

 years, though for reasons stated hereafter there will be that 

 amount of rainfall over western Nebraska in the near future. 



Even the relative amount of moisture in the atmosphere is high. 

 This is evident from the reports of the Signal Service at Omaha 

 and North Platte. It reports as much vapor on an average in the 

 atmosphere at Omaha as exists in the States in the Mississippi 

 Valley. At North Platte which represents western Nebraska, the 

 atmosphere contains a comparatively large amount of vapor. The 

 following table, taken from the report of the Signal office for the 

 year ending June 3Oth, 1878, gives the vapor in the atmosphere for 

 each month. 



Monthly and annual mean relative humidity; from observations taken at 7 a. m., 



2 and 9 p. wi., &c. 



